Small Business – Hiring and Firing

A small business owners worst nightmare, who do I hire? I don’t want to fire!

This is a quick post, I was reading something today that triggered some thoughts of my previous experience hiring and firing and I thought it might help you.

Hiring is easy, you have to do your homework, read the resumes. Talk to the references, let others in the organization talk to the prospects. Do all the stuff you would normally do.

Now that you have it narrowed down, pick the one with the most energy and enthusiasm. If you are hiring sales people hiring the one that can sell. Don’t worry about product knowledge that can be taught a lot easier than sales.

Here’s the hard one, firing. You are doing your business, other employees and the person you are thinking about firing a huge disservice if you don’t pull the trigger fast.

Think about it, a bad apple takes down all of your other employees, and may cause some lost business. The person you want to fire knows it’s not working out and is waiting for the meeting. That person is not working up to peak performance and the whole thing is messing with your head.

Get it over for everybody! Fire FAST.

Here is one other thought for you, always be on the look out for better employees. Always be looking to improve your staff. That doesn’t mean you have to just fire somebody and then hire the better choice, but it could and I’ve seen managers do it. But it does mean always be on the lookout, keep a file on prospects the you have met that you would consider hiring. People come and go, if you are always “hiring” you can fill a void really fast and make things even better.

Here are two tricks that I have used that I shouldn’t share, but here they are.

1. Even if you aren’t hiring advertise that you are and interview the competition. You will be amazed at what job candidates will tell you if they think they may get a job out of it.

2. I have had a number of high test sales positions and I naturally don’t like competition moving in on my turf. Normally in my sales career that wasn’t a problem. However one time I got a call from the competition asking me if I would be interested in talking to them about making a change. I told the no. They decided to put their best sales guy on my biggest account, thinking they would take me down one way or another. So I called a very good friend of mine that was a sales recruiter and told him about this super star sales guy that I had met and gave the recruiter his contact information. Less than 2 months later the new sales guy that was planted on my biggest account moved to Chicago for a new position.

I hope this gives you something to think about, it’s based on my experience and my situations. There is no guarantee that you will get the same results.

One Response to “Small Business – Hiring and Firing”

Wow Blase that was very informative – but then I have never worked in sales – only pre-sales which isn’t the same. I used to be the tech person who tagged along with the hot shot sales guy. Who got all the money I was too busy dealing with bit and bytes to realise all these strategies were probably being played out. Great insight.